Chris Paul is now officially a member of the Los Angeles Clippers with the NBA finalizing the deal in which the New Orleans Hornets acquired forward Al-Farouq Aminu, guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman and Minnesota’s 2012 unprotected first round pick. As part of the deal, the Los Angeles Clippers received two 2015 second round picks from the Hornets.

“We wanted to make sure that we got the best possible deal for a player of Chris’ caliber, and we feel great about the outcome,” Hornets Chairman and Governor Jac Sperling said in a statement. “We feel our future looks very bright and we look forward to continue to create an organization that New Orleans will be proud of. We want to thank Chris Paul, an extraordinary person who contributed so greatly to our basketball team and our community. We wish him the best of luck.”

Hornets General Manager Dell Demps said: “With this trade, we now have three additional players who were among the top eight draft picks in their respective drafts as well as our own first round pick and Minnesota’s first round pick.

“Aminu is a young talent with a bright future, Gordon is a big time scorer and one of the best two guards in the league and Kaman is a proven center and former All-Star. Combined with our other players, we will field a competitive team and our future looks great.”

Gordon, 6 foot 3, 220 pounds, was drafted as the seventh overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Clippers, averaged career-highs of 22.3 points, 4.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 56 games last season (all starts). He scored more than 30 points eight times last season, putting together a streak of 20 or more points in 12 consecutive games.

The Indianapolis native holds career averages of 18.1 points, 3.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game over 196 games (181 starts). Gordon was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2009 and was named the Western Conference Rookie of the Month in January of his rookie season.

He went to Indiana University for one season before declaring for the draft, where he averaged 20.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 32 games. Gordon played for Team USA in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey helping team to a perfect 9-0 record en route to winning the gold medal averaging 8.6 points.

Kaman (7-0, 265), who was the sixth overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft by the Clippers, averaged 12.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in 32 games (15 starts) last season. He holds career averages of 11.8 points and 8.3 rebounds in 493 games (425 starts). Since the 2003-04 season, Kaman is one of 31 players with more than 4,000 rebounds and is just one of six players who grabbed all of those rebounds with just one team - joining Dwight Howard (Orlando), Tim Duncan (San Antonio), Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas), Udonis Haslem (Miami) and Josh Smith (Atlanta).

Kaman had his best season of his NBA career en route to being named an NBA All-Star for first time during the 2009-10 season, averaging a team-high 18.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists in 34.3 minutes.

Aminu (6-9, 215), who was drafted eighth overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2010 NBA Draft, averaged 5.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game over 81 games (14 starts) last season for the Clippers.

The 22-year old averaged 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 22.1 minutes over his 14 starts last season with the team. The former Wake Forest standout averaged 15.8 points, 10.7 rebounds and accumulated 44 blocks in 31 games while shooting 44.7 percent from the field during his sophomore season for the Demon Deacons before declaring early for the NBA Draft. Aminu descends from a line of Nigerian kings.